1 20 NA TURAL H1STOR Y OF SELBORNE. 



L E T T E R 1 1. 



TO THE SAME. 

 , SELBORNE, Nov. znd, 1769. 



DEAR SIR, When I did myself the honour to write to you 

 about the end of last June on the subject of natural history, I sent 

 you a list of the summer birds of passage which I have observed in 

 this neighbourhood ; and also a list of the winter-birds of passage : 

 I mentioned besides those soft-billed birds that stay with us the 

 winter through in the south of England, and those that are remark- 

 able for singing in the night.* 



According to my proposal, I shall now proceed to such birds 

 (singing birds strictly so called) as continue in full song till after 

 Midsummer ; and shall range them somewhat in the order in 

 which they first begin to open as the spring advances. 



* This letter is also devoted to the song of birds, and records various peculiarities 

 The song or call of birds, like the seasonable changes in the plumage, is undoubtedly 

 one of the accessories to the season of incubation. Some utter notes and call each other 

 at all seasons of the year, using them for the purpose of keeping together, or for an alarm 

 upon the approach of danger ; but many species have cries peculiar to the love season 

 which are used to summon the mate, or uttered as a cry of distress when the breeding 

 grounds are invaded, or the young ones in danger. These latter calls are lost after this 

 season is finished. The cuckoo loses his well-known note, which gradually becomes more 

 inarticulate as the season advances ; the jarring saw-like note of the greater and cole tit- 

 mice ceases after a few months, and the curlews in like manner give up their very peculiar 

 breeding whistle ; the crakes and rails cease their call, or it becomes hoarse and indistinct. 

 The song of birds will commence earlier or later, according as the locality varies. As 

 White remarks the missel-thrush is a very early songster, and in Scotland in a mild winter 

 we have heard it in January. Those birds which breed more than once in the season 

 continue the song longer, but as July approaches there is a very marked difference in the 

 " language of the groves,'" and as compared with a fine morning in April or May they are 

 silent. We think, nowever, that some of the birds included in the first list can scarcely be 

 called ''singing birds, strictly." The yellow-hammer, and indeed all the buntings have 

 a very monotonous note, remarkable only for its sameness and frequency of repetition, and 

 one or two others have only a short varied call, but which is always repeated the same ; so 

 that although White uses the expression of "singing birds, strictly so called," he meant the 

 general love-note or call. To the birds that sing as they fly might have been added the 

 common bunting and green linnet, b< th of which have a peculiar breeding flight and 

 song ; the first however is a very locally distributed species. The bird called tit-lark in 

 this list seems from the note of its habits to be the tree-lark or pipit, Anthns arboreus. 

 The true tit-lark or meadow pipit, AntJnts pratensis, has also a descending flight, singing 

 at the same time, and would be a visitant at least to the downs. The common winchat 

 will rise from its perch on the top of some tall plant, and make a short musical excursi n 

 upwards. The blackbird's call, from bush to bush, is rather an alarm note, than any part 

 of its usual song. 



